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SA: Sports, Arts and Culture responds to City Press article

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SA: Sports, Arts and Culture responds to City Press article

Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa
Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa

15th July 2019

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/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture would like to place on record that it is extremely disappointed and deems worthless and beneath consideration on the basis of it being devoid of truth and facts the disparaging article published by City Press on the 14th of July 2019.

The article was written and published with the malicious intention to taint the name of the Department and that of Minister Nathi Mthethwa. The article is both misleading and mischievous to the South African public on how the Department is managing public funds, as the Department has received unqualified audits for the past five years by the Auditor General.

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The City Press first approached the Department through a set of questions on the 4th of July 2019 and the Department sent the responses on the 5th of July as requested by the newspaper. Suffice to say that the newspaper did not publish the article but instead sent another email on Thursday evening, the 11th July 2019 informing the Department that they needed to investigate further.

The Department sent the responses to the newspaper on the 12th July as requested by it. It is to the Department’s astonishment and disappointment to witness the resultant shoddy journalism and to realise that the responses sent to the newspaper were not used including the annexures that were detailing the beneficiaries that were funded and their provincial locations.

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The Department views this blatant omission as a smoke-screen for City Press to be seen to have followed the journalism requirement of fair reporting even though they did not give the Department a voice or accord it fairness in telling its story that adequately rebutted and exposed the lies of its sources.

Furthermore the department vehemently rejects the notion and the assertion that the “Venture Capital Fund” (VCF) should have gone through the Mzansi Golden Economy (MGE) process.

This funding vehicle was a new innovative initiative established through a consultative process with National Treasury hence it was done through a public tender process and awarded to the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) after a competitive bidding process.

The VCF was established to offer loans to the creative industry and focus on the commercial side of their business where interest is charged on every disbursement of funds.  Whereas MGE is mainly for grant funding, therefore the VCF process did not go through the normal MGE funding procedures. The internationally-acclaimed 2018 movie, “Sew The Winter To My Skin” is the most successful beneficiary of this fund to date.

Below is the outline of the process Department followed to establish and award the tender on VCF to NEF:

In 2015 the Department wanted to create a Venture Capital Fund for the benefit of the creative industry loan facility. Initially the department wanted to run a Pilot Programme to operate its loan facility. The Department then approached National Treasury for advice. Consultative meetings were held with National Treasury officials and supported the initiative but recommended as follows:

Hosting of the VCF within an agency of government which has the capacity and expertise to grant and administer loans;

Providing technical assistance to beneficiaries of the VCF, either through secondment of a resource from the Department or any other appropriate mechanism;

Calling for proposals to host and administer the VCF thereby ensuring full transparency in the selection process.

The tender was advertised in the Government Bulletin number 39934 and three National News Papers namely, The Star, The New Age and The Sowetan.

The Department received 26 proposals that were reviewed by the special Bid Adjudication Committee (BAC) which was appointed by the Accounting Officer. The BAC panel members were appointed based on the expertise required for the establishment of the VCF.   The BAC members were to consist of five external members namely the: 1) Director: Development Finance Institutions from National Treasury, 2) Chief Executive Officer from National Film and Video Foundation, 3) Chief Financial Officer from National Arts Council, 4) Chief Director: Black Industrialist from Department of Trade and Industry, 5) Investment Analyst from Grovest (Private Sector), and 6) two internal officials from the Department, that is, the Chief Financial Officer and the Director: Financial Administration.

However, two external members could not make it for Adjudication.

The BAC members gave the NEF the highest score based on the set criteria.

The allocation was determined in 2016 as follows:

2016/17 R20 million

2017/18 R30 million

2018/19 R50 million

Worthy to note, is that contrary to the lie published in the publication in question,  Mr Charles Mabaso is not the Acting Director-General and has never acted in that capacity. This statement is not the only incorrect one in the article, and the Department attempted to correct it with the journalist(s) concerned, but our response was ignored. This once more enhances the lack of integrity, aversion to accurate storytelling, lack of understanding and commitment to distortion in not only the contents of the piece, but its writers. Nevertheless, we wish to place on record that contrary to the false claim made in the City Press (i.e. that the projects it mentions were approved outside the scope and threshold of R2-million of MGE), what has been reported is not how the MGE process works:

The threshold of R2-million applies to the three MGE work streams namely Cultural Events, Touring Ventures and Public Art. The projects mentioned by City Press focus amongst others on Skills Development (incubators, academies) primarily meant to provide requisite skills for the sector as well as preservation and sustenance of our Heritage and the mainstreaming of marginalised art forms.

Upon receipt of the proposal the department captures and categorises it into different grant work streams (i.e. Cultural Events, Touring Venture and Public   Art). This is the pre-screening phase which addresses administrative compliance aspects. 

The   proposals are then subjected to MGE guidelines and taken to various screening panels that subsequently make recommendations to the adjudication committee and/or subjected to a process through submission which is then sent to the Accounting Officer for consideration and approval. 

The Department would like to clarify that all its Deputy Directors-General are responsible for their   own business units and decisions thereof. When it comes to matters of funding, the Department appoints adjudication committees which adjudicate funding proposals. These committees comprise experts in the sector as well as department officials. However, DDG’s do participate in the supply chain management process and in bid committees as appointed by the DG in line with supply chain management prescripts but they do not and should not be party to funding decisions. This is aimed at ensuring independence of the adjudication process, as in the past artists have raised concerns of alleged favouritism in the selection of projects for funding. 

Furthermore the process is subjected to various Departmental Units namely Cultural Development, Legal, Finance, and the Office of the Director General for consideration/ approval. Once approved, the proposal is taken to Legal for contracting purposes.

Based on the process outlined above, Mr Mabaso clearly cannot and does not single-handendly adjudicate, recommend and approve any of the proposals alleged to have been irregular.

The projects mentioned by City Press were approved within the process applicable to them and after due diligence had been done.  

On disciplinary issues relating to the senior officials in the Department: The department finds astonishing and deeply distressing the attempt to drag the President’s name into this reportage for whatever questionable and nefarious agenda. What it will note, however, is that the individual(s) who are being named in this particular inference resigned out of their own volition, while the other(s) have been suspended due to serious allegations levelled at them. All senior officials facing disciplinary action have only been subjected to this process after thorough investigations were done and the Department had no option but to act in line with its policy of zero tolerance to corruption, fraud and mismanagement. This is a standard process which would allow the affected individuals to go through a due and fair process to clear their names. The Department is not at liberty to divulge the details of these cases, as this is a matter between employer and employee. The Department requests that City Press respects and allows these processes to unfold to finality.

On the allegation of private attorneys being paid R3-million for working with the Living Legends Legacy Project (LLLP), the Department finds this peddling of lies very unfortunate. City Press was provided with a response that no money had been paid to any private lawyers who are assisting LLLP in a case against Mr Welcome Msomi. In fact, it was Minister Mthethwa himself who- upon being aware of the allegation- directed the Director-General Mr Vusi Mkhize to meet with the Living Legends and advise them to open a case and also inform the rest of the Legends about these shocking developments. The Living Legends Trustees acted decisively and with a great sense of urgency to address this matter. As an organ of state, the Department is vehemently opposed to criminality and malfeasance. Where evidence of such is available the Department will act swiftly and without favour to ensure that the might of the law is visited upon any wrongdoers.

“Ladysmith Black Mambazo” submitted a proposal which had nothing to do with the allegation made by City Press that it was for an album recording with the former President Jacob Zuma. This is clearly a fishing expedition as initially it was reported that this album was to be funded by the EThekwini Municipality, we are shocked that now City Press has new knowledge contrary to what was initially reported in the news. It is another telling proof of an attempt to tarnish the image of the Department by whoever is their alleged source.

The Department refutes once again the allegation that it funded Mr Linda Sibiya’s "Spirit of Praise" and this was communicated to the newspaper in our responses and yet the newspaper chose to ignore this response.

The allegation made by the newspaper that files including that of Ms Zanele Mbokazi have gone missing is news to the Department. According to our knowledge the files are in our offices, unless the alleged sources have unlawfully removed them without the Department’s knowledge.

In conclusion, it is regrettable, albeit not surprising that at a time when media ethics are under scrutiny, the publication in question would sacrifice accurate and balanced reporting at the altar of pursuing a particular nefarious agenda, largely informed by the journalist(s) in question belonging to a particular cabal of lobbyists hiding behind a keyboard and acting under the guise of being “journalists”. Detailed responses to questions posed to the DAC (with 24 hours to respond) were wilfully ignored in the publishing of the cited article- questions that the DAC are bombarded with on a regular basis and without a reasonable amount of time to respond to.

This adds credence to the DAC’s position that the publication and the journalist(s) in question is not interested in reporting facts, but to merely continue its factually devoid narrative as pursued by other individuals belonging to the same cabal whose aim appears to distract, if not entirely derail the good work that the DAC is committed to in serving not only its stakeholders, but South Africans as a whole on the one hand, and the democracy project on the other hand. The DAC is aware that the authors of the article in question represent an interest group of specific individuals who are also behind a petition two months ago making the ludicrous appeal exposing them of their posture of entitlement to the President that he appoints an individual of their own choice as Minister of Arts and Culture.

The front page of City Press demonstrates that theirs is not a mission of assisting the Department in achieving its mandates, but one that they are committed to discredit and destroy at any given opportunity. What makes their work desperate as it is tragic in the dawn of the Sixth Administration is that they are even prepared to use discredited sources that because of their actions have in the past and/or continue to face internal disciplinary procedures.

Issued by Department of Arts and Culture

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